By Samuel Ayamah
Two siblings drowned in River Ponpon near Tankro, a Community at Kintampo, the capital of the Kintampo North Municipality of the Bono East Region.
According to the story, a pregnant woman and two male adults were traveling on a Motor-tricycle from Tankro to Kintampo.
GBC NEWS gathered that there was heavy rain causing the Ponpon River which links Tankro to Kintampo to overflow its banks around 3:30 pm on Sunday.
According to Nyankro residents, all efforts made to stop the Motortricycle rider to join his colleague riders and commercial car drivers by stopping for the flood waters to recede before attempting to cross was unsuccessful.
They say, in an attempt to cross, the Motor Tricycle somersaulted and landed in the River.
Bystanders quickly rushed to the scene and called NADMO officials and GNFS personnel, who were able to rescue the pregnant woman, a male adult and the Motortricycle rider.
After several hours of search, the search party was able to retrieve the body of the six-year-old girl this morning.
The MCE for Kintampo North, Mr. Isaac Baffoe Ameyaw who spoke to GBC News, described the incident as an annual ritual and said anytime such an incident occurs, they normally call a soothsayer to perform some rituals to enable them to retrieve the body, but this time, ”all efforts made to retrieve the body of the 4-year-old girl has not been successful”.
A Unit Committee Chairman of the Area, Mr. Kwaku Gyabuni, an eyewitness, also spoke to GBC News and collaborated on the MCE’s statement.
As at the time of filing this report, the search party had stopped their operations following the confirmation of the mother of the deceased siblings that she consulted a soothsayer to help her to give birth after several years of barrenness.
The decision of the rescue team to stop their operations is to allow the soothsayer to perform some more rituals to enable them to retrieve the body of the four-year-old girl.
The tragic incident has thrown most parts of Kintampo and Ntankro into a state of grief and mourning as family members, friends and sympathisers of the deceased teenagers thronged their residences to commiserate with the bereaved families.
Many of them who could not hold back their emotions, wept uncontrollably as they could not fathom why the young ones died in such a sorrowful and tragic manner.